Mini 803 Easy and Reliable to Remove Frequently?

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Whatatay

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Trying to decide between the Mobius and Mini 803.

I live in a place where it gets hot in the summer so thought of getting the Mobius and switching out the battery for the super capacitor. However, after doing some temperature readings the other day, the temperature inside the car at the windshield was 152 F (66 C) and that was on a day that measured 95F (35C) in the shade.

So either way it looks like I will have to remove the camera on hot days. The Mini 803 seems it would be less hassle to have the USB plugged into the mounting base and just removing the camera. The Mobius is not as easy to remove from its holder and I would have to unplug and plug the USB cable in every time.

So has anyone who has the Mini 803 frequently removed and installed it? I am concerned about the wear and tear of the mount and contact pins causing a reliability issue.

Thanks.
 
Whatatay said:
So has anyone who has the Mini 803 frequently removed and installed it? I am concerned about the wear and tear of the mount and contact pins causing a reliability issue.

Thanks.
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I don't remove mine frequently but it has been removed quite a few times. If I was going to do it every day then I would have more faith in the 0803 mount than a USB connector. They do seem to have had some manufacturing issues with the pins but they seem to have been sorted now, if they are properly made then they are decent solid spring loaded pins. The plastic of the mount will probably wear over time but you can always shim it to tighten it up again.

Just make sure that you get a recently manufactured one with the improved mount and heatsink.


PS if your mount does wear out then replacement mounts are cheap and widely available!
 
The more often you move the Mini 080x the sooner the base wears out and becomes wobbly. I had two 0801 bases fail last year after repeated in/outs testing. My understanding is the factory has a new thicker improved base in the works finally. We'll see though.
 
Pier28 said:
I had two 0801 bases fail last year after repeated in/outs testing.
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How many in/out cycles before they failed?

(Only needs 365 for a year of being removed every day!)
 
Nigel said:
How many in/out cycles before they failed?

(Only needs 365 for a year of being removed every day!)
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Don't have a log of the exact number of times, but it' was few enough to be disappointed beyond the failed unstable firmwares.

I just remember you start to see white plastic stretch/stress marks right before it starts to go. I'm sure there is a post from me about it here somewhere with pix from 2013. It's not possible to search older content for some reason pre-ZenForo days
 
Whatatay said:
So either way it looks like I will have to remove the camera on hot days.
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Roughly how many days?

Whatatay said:
The Mobius is not as easy to remove from its holder
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The Mobius is as easy to slide out of its cradle as you choose to make it. The two retaining lugs can be filed down in a few strokes to suit your personal taste.
 
I am hoping to get a hold of an 0803 soon. I was thinking what if i remove the 3M pad from the base and attach dual lock tape to the base and to my windscreen and remove it that way? Taking the whole thing off.
 
With the newer mount that we are selling, it looks like it will withstand frequent mounting and un-mounting much better than the old mount, not only because it is the sturdier, but also the stiffer pins. It's a great time to get one because the problems the old Mini 0803 had has been fixed with the redesign.

CheckYourLights said:
I am hoping to get a hold of an 0803 soon. I was thinking what if i remove the 3M pad from the base and attach dual lock tape to the base and to my windscreen and remove it that way? Taking the whole thing off.
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The 3M dual lock tape is very sturdy, but I doubt it'll match the adhesive pad that comes with the Mini 0803. One difference with that option compared to sliding the Mini 0803 off the mount would be that you will need to also unplug the USB on the mount before pulling it off.

Kelvin
 
CheckYourLights said:
I am hoping to get a hold of an 0803 soon. I was thinking what if i remove the 3M pad from the base and attach dual lock tape to the base and to my windscreen and remove it that way? Taking the whole thing off.
Click to expand...
I think that over time the stress you would put on the mount when trying to separate the tape would damage the mount since the mount is too small to get hold of so you would have to apply all the force via the camera.
 
Nigel said:
I think that over time the stress you would put on the mount when trying to separate the tape would damage the mount since the mount is too small to get hold of so you would have to apply all the force via the camera.
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I never thought about that. Thanks for mentioning. I don't have one in hand yet.
 
Thank you all for your replies. I am definitely going to wait for the new mount and heatsink to be readily available.
 
Whatatay said:
Thank you all for your replies. I am definitely going to wait for the new mount and heatsink to be readily available.
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If you want to be sure you get one with the new mount and heatsink now, we have it in stock ready to be shipped.

Kelvin
 
Okay So this evening I just got a hold of an 0803.
I need a mounting solution that will allow me to swap it between at least two cars.
Maybe something magnetic I could put on the base and my windscreen?
As someone posted Dual Lock tape may not be the way to go. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks
 
If you go with Jokiin's suggestion then you can properly sort the wiring in both cars.

It's light enough for magnets but the weight isn't centred on the base so to stop it wanting to rotate and hang down you would need more than one magnet. A square of 4 on the base and another 4 on the windscreen stuck on by 3m tape would probably work very nicely, but why bother when extra bases are cheap.
 
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